Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

Chapter 190: Chapter 105: Meizi Gets Bitten by a Snake

Just then, a commotion erupted nearby.

Liu Xiaomei yelled over to Juhua, ”We caught a pheasant! Juhua, come and look, we caught a pheasant!”

It turned out that, just as an unlucky person can get water stuck in their teeth, this pheasant was having a terrible day. Its luck was no better than the rabbit from the old story that ran headfirst into a tree stump. With the mountainside covered in shrubs and thatch, the bird was normally far too quick for anyone to catch. But this time, cornered by the crowd, it panicked and shot right toward Liu Sanshun. He promptly tripped, landing in a sprawl that pinned the bird right under him, and he snatched it up.

The poor pheasant. Its entire family, wiped out in one fell swoop! It was tied up by these heartless humans, dangled from a hand, and paraded around like a trophy of war. Liu Xiaomei paid it no mind, still pestering Juhua to come over for pheasant soup that night.

Juhua couldn’t help but smile. ’Your family has so many people,’ she thought. ’This poor chicken only weighs a pound or two. That’s not even a mouthful for your brothers. Why would I go and join the crowd?’

The bustling villagers felt a deep sense of accomplishment, but misfortune always has a way of striking. These beautiful mountain woods not only provided people with all sorts of plants and animals for food, but also concealed countless dangers. Not everyone could be as lucky as Lanzi and Liu Xiaomei, who had managed to kill a snake with just a rock. Sure enough, Meizi’s luck ran out—she was bitten by a snake!

Whenever the villagers went up the mountain, they always tied their pant legs shut. This was partly to keep the sharp grass from scratching their legs and making them itch, but also to guard against snake bites. Meizi, however, was having an unlucky day. As she bent over to snap off a bamboo shoot, stretching out her leg, her ankle became exposed.

She spotted a short, thick bamboo shoot near a thorny thicket. Just as she was pushing aside the brambles to reach in and snap it off, she unwittingly stepped on a snake. The snake instantly bit her.

She shrieked, jumping back and pulling her foot away as the snake quickly slithered off. Meizi immediately burst into loud cries.

The closest people were Li Changming and Big Mouth Zhao, who were digging holes to plant trees. Hearing her horrified cries, they rushed over and asked anxiously, ”Meizi, what happened?”

Meizi felt her ankle begin to swell. ”A snake bit me,” she wailed. ”Changming, I’m going to die... Sob...” She collapsed onto the ground, clutching her lower leg and crying.

Hearing this, Li Changming and Big Mouth Zhao were shocked as well. They rushed forward to examine the wound.

Meizi let them untie her pant leg. Through a blur of tears, she saw that her calf was already badly swollen, which only made her cry harder. She was convinced she was going to die—after all, people had died from snake bites before.

Big Mouth Zhao said frantically, ”Quick, suck the venom out! We have to tie off her leg, too!”

He fumbled with his own worn shirt, trying to rip a piece off, but in his panic, he couldn’t tear it. With a sharp R-I-I-IP, Li Changming tore a strip from the bottom of his own shirt. He handed it to Big Mouth Zhao and said in a low, steady voice, ”Tie up her leg. Below the knee.”

After speaking, he glanced at Meizi, who was a sobbing mess. He hesitated for a second, then lowered his head, brought his mouth to the fang marks, and began to suck forcefully. With every mouthful he drew, he spat out a glob of dark blood.

Big Mouth Zhao took the strip of cloth and tied it tightly below Meizi’s knee. The tourniquet made her leg swell even more, and Li Changming was able to draw out even more dark blood.

He paused for a moment, telling Big Mouth Zhao to squeeze the poison down toward the wound. A large pool of dark blood flowed out. He sucked a few more times, then stopped, feeling his own mouth go numb and his lips begin to swell.

By now, a crowd had gathered.

Meizi’s father, Qin, came rushing over in a panic. When he saw his daughter crying her heart out, then glanced at the dark blood on the ground and her swollen leg, his heart lurched. He didn’t have time to worry about another man putting his mouth on his daughter; all he could think was that if anything happened to Meizi, his wife would have his hide when he got home. Besides, he doted on his daughter. His boy, Gou Dan, was so mischievous that he made Meizi seem all the more lovable by comparison.

He scrambled over and knelt beside his daughter, babbling nervously, ”Meizi, how are you... Does it hurt? Oh, heavens! What are we going to do?”

When Meizi saw her father arrive, she cried even harder. ”Dad, I... I’m going to die!” she sobbed, grabbing his arm. The two of them clung to each other, weeping.

Big Mouth Zhao saw the two of them were only making things worse. ”Uncle Qin, don’t you panic now!” he said quickly to Qin. ”Can’t you see Changming is sucking out the venom? Tell Meizi to stop crying. The swelling will go down, she’ll be alright!”

Juhua, Qingmu, and the others hurried over. Seeing Meizi’s distraught cries, they too grew anxious. Only when they heard Big Mouth Zhao say she would be fine did they finally breathe a sigh of relief. Still, they couldn’t help but feel disappointed—a perfectly good day’s work had been ruined by a single snake.